Pictures A new baby English Budgie

[MadIe]

Hello friends. So we finally took a decision on our new family member.
We could not buy any poicephalus nor any of the other parrots we had settled for ( 3 months of reading and no available birds was disappointing) we finally decided to go for the English Parakeet.

I had read that they need to be hand fed to be tamed, but that of course I could not find.
I finally found a private guy who had a few that told me on the phone were "nice" but not hand fed.

When we arrived there with my eldest son ( on pic) he showed me a few that were 40 days old. But then he told me he could offer me another bird but that i needed to hand feed him for a couple more weeks.
This little cutie won our hearts at once.

He was about 21 days old.
The first two days i fed him with formula which he ate a little of ( most he spitted out) .
He did not fly the first 2 days.
But, he did let us hold him and he needed cuddling in the evening ( sitting in warm hands ).
Two days later I took the bird to the aviary vet and I told him that I had seen the bird eat some of the grains i had placed for him.
I was not even sure if this was a real English parakeet.

The Vet told me to sop hand feeding.
So I did, though I was very stressed about this for several days not knowing if the bird would be able to feed himself.
I did what i had done with my baby boys, I started weighing him.
He weigh 46 gram when he arrived. Each day he was constant or gaining weight.
I started to feel more calm.
He did not want to eat anything but those small grains he peels off.
But a couple of days ago he finally nibbled both on apple, strawberry and a cucumber so now I hope I can introduce other foods to him.
3 days after we got him he started to fly around. And well! I read all I could and I understand that was a bit early as flight , but good for him.
Today he's been with us for 11 days and he is INCREDIBLE!

He even starts to make sounds that remind us a lot of "step up 'and "hello" ( It's probably very early but he does imitates our sounds )
I'm sure he is an English parakeet because his head is large and although he is just a grey fluff under his feathers ( so, very young), he actually is the size of an adult "normal"parakeet.

He steps up on our fingers.
He Sits on the shoulder or head of everyone in the family.


And he hates to go back to the cage. Begging us to open for him so he an be outside.
He eats at least one meal a day at the table with us.
He loves to stroll around on the table or even on the floor ( i'm not keen on that as he could nibble on something toxic ).
IS very playful ( but also sleeps a lot on our shoulders, which the vendor told me was normal due to his young age).

Overall Virus ( that's his name ) is gorgeous!

I only have 3 questions for all the experts here:

1) What exactly does a "pallet" mean?
I can't translate this into french. Could someone post a picture for us?
I bough him a cube of minerals he nibbles on a bit.
A good quality mix of seeds and egg he does stirr around in it but i don't have the impression he eats it.
I gave him our own "home made " eggs ,he ate a little the other day.
I also got the millet spray ( he doensn't want it).

And now I bought loose weight grains one classical and one exotic. ( see picture) . Is this what you call pallet in english?

2) Could you recommend me a good brand of quality food for our boy? ( IF possible NOT in Plastic packaging !!)

3) What do you recommend the spacing of the cage to be ?
We got him a fairly large cage but he doesn't LOVE it.
I am planning on getting him something bigger but I wanted to double check with you guys regarding the spacing between the bars.
How big can it be for an English Budgie?
I read max 1, 25 cm ( 1/2 inch) spacing , but the larger cages I looked at are more like 2,1 cm or about 1 inch.
Any experts here?

Thanks in advance. (

 

[MadIe]

Here's a pic of the grains and a little trick called "gime a kiss " that I taught him.

 

[Mybluebird]

He's very cute and I love the name "Virus". Do you mean "pellet" not "pallet"? Some experts will be along to help you with your questions. I'll tag some.
@Lady Jane @Fergus Mom @Zara @Lori D Pert @Ripshod

 

[sunnysmom]

He's adorable!

 

[Zara]

Congratulations!

I had read that they need to be hand fed to be tamed

This is not true

2) Could you recommend me a good brand of quality food for our boy? ( IF possible NOT in Plastic packaging !!)

I use Hagen Tropican pellets, most pellets will come in plastic packaging for freshnesh, however they can be recycled.
I buy my seeds in a small bird shop and buy by weight so I can take my own containers.

The Vet told me to sop hand feeding.
So I did, though I was very stressed about this for several days not knowing if the bird would be able to feed himself.

I don´t understand why the vet said this. My vet had said the same to me about one of mine, and I carried on hand feeding.

I read max 1, 25 cm ( 1/2 inch) spacing , but the larger cages I looked at are more like 2,1 cm or about 1 inch.

Those that are 2cm are for larger birds. Stick with the 1 - 1.2cm (yes it is hard to find a large cage with small car spacing unfortunately)

 

[Kiwi & Co.]

1) What exactly does a "pallet" mean?
I can't translate this into french. Could someone post a picture for us?

I assume you are talking about pellets. Pellet usually have a lot of the added vitamins and nutriens that your bird needs. @Mizzely has a good article about pelllets.

I bough him a cube of minerals he nibbles on a bit.

Most of the time a bird won't actually use thses, and if they do, a lot of the nutrients from them are hard for the bird to absorb.

I gave him our own "home made " eggs ,he ate a little the other day.

Eggs can be given 1 to 2 times a week, too much of it can be too fatty

I also got the millet spray ( he doensn't want it).

Millet spray is usually best for training, if he doesn't want it, he might not understand that it is food yet.

 

[Fergus Mom]

He loves to stroll around on the table or even on the floor ( i'm not keen on that as he could nibble on something toxic ).

I would definitely discourage him being on the floor, as there is too much risk of him getting stepped on! (Or doors opening and closing on him, etc.)

You've already gotten the answers here to your questions from other members, so I'll just say that mine eat this kind of pellets in addition to their seed, and vegetables. Mine don't care for fruit, you are lucky Virus is eating fruit!


These are what mine eat - notice they are the 'very small' pellets, rather than the kind with the parakeet on the bag.

I have bought these, but I don't think they ate them!



Virus is BEAUTIFUL!

 

[Fergus Mom]

Here is a photo of the cage Fergus and Fiona are in:

 

[Lori D Pert]

I was quite surprised that there was no translation on the package of my budgie food for "pellets". My best guess would be "boulettes d'oiseaux". They do contain a more balanced blend of vitamins and minerals for your bird but it takes time and patience tto get them to recognize them as food.

 

[Lady Jane]

Congrats on your baby EB. I am a true fan of them and miss them in my life. Sorry but I do not like the name you chose. Good luck with him and I always liked Goldenfeast foods because they don't use corn fillers.

 

[MadIe]

He's very cute and I love the name "Virus". Do you mean "pellet" not "pallet"? Some experts will be along to help you with your questions. I'll tag some.
@Lady Jane @Fergus Mom @Zara @Lori D Pert @Ripshod

Yes of course sorry typo!

 

[MadIe]

Congratulations!


This is not true


I use Hagen Tropican pellets, most pellets will come in plastic packaging for freshnesh, however they can be recycled.
I buy my seeds in a small bird shop and buy by weight so I can take my own containers.


I don´t understand why the vet said this. My vet had said the same to me about one of mine, and I carried on hand feeding.


Those that are 2cm are for larger birds. Stick with the 1 - 1.2cm (yes it is hard to find a large cage with small car spacing unfortunately)

Thank You for all the answers.

Yes I was a bit confused, but I listened to him. In the end it turned out fine, but I did worry for several days and monitored his weight like a maniac !


One thing though, very important: the plastic around our friends food is NOT EVER RECYCLED. That's lobby propaganda created by the Oil and Gas companies.

Almost NO PLASTC ever get's recycled.
The reason for this is very simple: NEW plastic is cheaper! Much cheaper!
Even if something plastic gets recycled it will never be recycled TWICE and will end in landfill or nature for sure.
Most plastic bags that get recycled will be turned into fabric, which will give off a mind-blowing pollution of form of "microfibers", actively killing life on land and in the seas.
Recycling plastic is just a fat lie that is there to cover the fact NEW PLASTIC production is INCREASING madly!

So there you have it. Sorry for the excitement about it, I have been investigating this for over a year now for my non profit organization "The World is home" .

There's one more thing, the plastic bags are toxic and they ooze ( leaching) toxins onto the food as the additives in them have unstable molecules.

This is something we are working hard on with several universities across the globe.
We prepare a large international survey trying to understand the link btw disease ( cancer , endocrine disruption) in animals and humans and plastic packaging.
Will keep you posted when that's ready in case you wish to participate!

Love that you buy loose weight so did I, this is one advise i did not listen to my Vet ( he told me plastic or nothing) !

 

[MadIe]

I assume you are talking about pellets. Pellet usually have a lot of the added vitamins and nutriens that your bird needs. @Mizzely has a good article about pelllets.



Most of the time a bird won't actually use thses, and if they do, a lot of the nutrients from them are hard for the bird to absorb.



Eggs can be given 1 to 2 times a week, too much of it can be too fatty



Millet spray is usually best for training, if he doesn't want it, he might not understand that it is food yet.

Thank you for all the answers. Dully noted all.
He did finally eat the whole millet spray i gave him , but only the one at the bottom of the cage , the one I hung he doesn't touch...go figure .

Yes I'm sorry for the typo I meant pellet and I still don't know what those are ( I mean I get that its food with good mix but how does that look? Just a mix or is it like a bar?? )

 

[MadIe]

I would definitely discourage him being on the floor, as there is too much risk of him getting stepped on! (Or doors opening and closing on him, etc.)

You've already gotten the answers here to your questions from other members, so I'll just say that mine eat this kind of pellets in addition to their seed, and vegetables. Mine don't care for fruit, you are lucky Virus is eating fruit!

View attachment 340206
These are what mine eat - notice they are the 'very small' pellets, rather than the kind with the parakeet on the bag.

I have bought these, but I don't think they ate them!

View attachment 340207

Virus is BEAUTIFUL!

Thanks a lot @ferfusmom So pellets are just the grains? Not pressed bars or something ( which is what I imagined ) . If so I did buy those loose weight in a good local store.
I just thought they were supposed to be "reinforced"with minerals and vitamines and that I have not found ( except the egg mix I mentioned )
For now he loves the grains, but I see progress on the fruit which I'm very happy about indeed.

Your birds look lovely too, are they english budgies?

I have another question:
Do you use a harness to walk outside with your birds a little?
Virus is completly obsessed with being outside the cage. He is miserable when i put him back, but I can's spend all the day indoors. Yesterday we sat in the garden and i just took all the cage out he was calm and happy ( we have a lot of birds in the garden robins, and blue tits so lots of singing) . But i was wondering if a "leech

Here is a photo of the cage Fergus and Fiona are in:

Yes so that's more wide than mine. I will try to get Virus a bigger cage but I need to find one with small bar spacing and that wasn't easy for now.

 

[MadIe]

I was quite surprised that there was no translation on the package of my budgie food for "pellets". My best guess would be "boulettes d'oiseaux". They do contain a more balanced blend of vitamins and minerals for your bird but it takes time and patience tto get them to recognize them as food.

Yes I see. But I'm still a little confused.
I found a mix of grain first with egg and fruit.
Here's the pic:


Then I got worried he didn't touch it so I bought this one



but as it's in Plastic wrapping ( egg one too) I don't intend to do that anymore ( leaching toxins , and just the principle won't work for me)

I finally bought lose weight ( in the jar) , but I don't know if there are any vitamines in it

I imagined pellets to be some sort of pressed blocks.

 

[MadIe]

Congrats on your baby EB. I am a true fan of them and miss them in my life. Sorry but I do not like the name you chose. Good luck with him and I always liked Goldenfeast foods because they don't use corn fillers.

Thank you . And thanks for the advise on the brand. I really want to provide him top quality food so I will look into brands this week.

Yes the name is controversial I know. My boys chose it. I guess they had it on their mind a bit lately. He seems to like it and we pronounce it like in Swedish and French "Veerus".

 

[Mybluebird]

@MadIe Here are a couple pictures of pellets. It is brand available in the US that many people on this forum feed their birds. It is a "manufactured" food, specially formulated with nutrients that birds need. Everyone here will agree that the birds should be fed as much fresh food as possible. Unfortunately most of the bird food here comes packaged in plastic or plastic coated paper.

 

[finchly]

In your photo of the first food, with the fruit and egg -- Frutti Patee -- that is made by the company Versele Laga. I'm sure I'm spelling it wrong. They make very good foods. You should be able to find a pellet food by them for your bird.

 

[Shezbug]

You also don’t want to be buying it loose weight- you want it packaged in plastic (regardless of your feelings towards plastic) to ensure that it is actually safe and there are no contaminants in it. If it’s packaged at the manufacturing plant then it has definitely gone through proper strict handling procedures to make sure its safe for your bird.

 

[Zara]

Versele Laga. I'm sure I'm spelling it wrong.

You spelled it right I raise my baby birds on their nutribird formula.
Their pellets come in cardboard boxes. So maybe those are an option.
They are readily available here to me but I chose the Hagen over them.

edit; actually... maybe they have a plastic insert... I´m not sure.